KIM Daesoo

bmb2010189, Gelatin Silver Print, 54.8x41cm, 2010

Kim Dae-soo is a photographer whose work originates from questions about the essence of human existence that have accompanied him since his youth. His practice centers on reflections on the passage of time and the nature of the self within it.

bmb2007049, Gelatin Silver Print, 54.8x41cm, 2007

Years spent living abroad became a turning point in the artist’s life, ultimately strengthening his sense of identity as a Korean. In the process of exploring his cultural roots, he became deeply fascinated by bamboo—one of the four plants traditionally known in East Asian art as the Four Gentlemen (plum blossom, orchid, chrysanthemum, and bamboo), which were frequently depicted in the scholarly arts of the past.

bmb2010191, Gelatin Silver Print, 54.8x41cm, 2010

Kim explains that bamboo, hollow within yet growing upright and resilient, symbolizes the spirit of the seonbi—the Korean scholar-gentlemen who sought to maintain integrity and moral strength even in times of hardship.

bmb2010191, Gelatin Silver Print, 54.8x41cm, 2010

He further suggests that this “seonbi spirit” is a noble quality that exists within many Koreans today. Through his work, the artist hopes to offer a moment of reflection to a contemporary society that may have forgotten this enduring value. The formal compositions of his photographs, the use of black-and-white film, and even his working process evoke elements of Korean sensibility, referencing ideas such as the harmony of yin and yang and the historical notion of Koreans as the “white-clad people.”

bmb2025223, Gelatin Silver Print, 54.8x41cm, 2025

Through Kim Dae-soo’s solo exhibition Luminous Sonata, presented this March at Gallery Imazoo, viewers are invited to experience the powerful vitality and spiritual resilience embodied in bamboo—an expression of the enduring seonbi spirit that the artist has explored for many years.

Gallery Imazoo
Seoul, Gangnam-gu, Teheran-ro 20-gil,12, B1
+82 02 557 1950

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